Marijuana Business Magazine February 2020

February 2020 | mjbizdaily.com 51 E ven before federal health officials singled out the additive vitamin E acetate for the rash of vaping illnesses sweeping the country, cannabis companies scrambled to inves- tigate whether vape cartridges, batteries and other components were to blame. Thus far, vaping hardware hasn’t been formally linked to the illnesses. But dangerous levels of heavy metals have been found in some THC vaporizers, including legal vapes in Massachusetts in December. Industry executives who reexamined their hardware say that sourcing hardware suppliers and imple- menting a stringent vetting and testing policy are a company’s best protection. BE PICKY ABOUT SUPPLIERS “We look for companies that are GMP/ ISO-certified, that document their man- ufacturing processes, that have released specifications for their products. They test that products meet requirements before they leave their dock,” said Matt Ingram, product development manager at Cresco Labs, a Chicago-based multi- state cannabis company. “For instance, our cartridge manufacturer tests extractables for leaching. That’s confirming that their material isn’t going to add something to our oil once we put it in contact with the cartridge. They test the delivery parameters of their cartridges,” he said. “They test for things like heavy metals, so it’s a pretty robust package that we expect from vendors.” Ingram also said Cresco demands transparency. “Vendors who don’t let us see their site or aren’t transparent about their methods of manufacturing and testing, we won’t do business with them,” he noted. TEST … AND TEST AGAIN While Cresco expects its hardware suppliers to test their products, the company also tests the hardware before sending its finished vaporizers to retailers. “You have to make sure you have a cartridge that is properly married to your oil. The temperature at which the battery heats the cartridge and the porosity of the wick or the core, those are really important parameters,” Ingram said. “It’s really important to test this stuff.” He also said it’s important to test what dose is actually delivered. “And you have to make sure it’s not being delivered at a temperature that’s too high—because if it is, you could be turning completely safe chemicals into something that’s harmful.” When Cresco gets a cartridge or battery from a source, it puts cannabis oil in and then finds out during testing that the battery is running too hot or BATTERY CHARGING PORT POWER BUTTON COIL AND WICK ATOMIZER MOUTHPIECE CHIMNEY CHAMBER CONNECTOR THE ANATOMY OF A VAPE PEN